CHAEBEOL | minsung

thirty-five

♡✩ ° ｡♡｡⋆⸜♡

Minho was starting to question if he should've come. He'd come alone, and wouldn't admit to himself why; the party was a secret, held away from Hyunjin and Jeongin and prying eyes.

Even more so, he was starting to question if he should've come sober.

This was answered when he saw Jisung. The wall in the corner of the room seemed to be an unfamiliar spot for the Head Boy, and Minho wasn't expecting to find him anxious, back to the wall and his fingers curled into his palms. Jisung had been biting his nails recently. Minho wasn't sure why.

As much as Minho was painfully sober, he still didn't feel normal. Nothing felt clear, and he was trying to explain away his queasiness with bad dinner or stomach troubles. Ignoring it was easier, and in a way, he'd handed the reins over to the Minho he was when he smoked.

Alternative methods, right? That's what they'd said. So they'd both be kind, and stay away from drugs, and violence, and general misconduct, and do... do what, exactly? Each other? The more Minho thought, the more questions sprouted from a now rooted seed.

So Minho stopped thinking.

"You really don't have anyone to talk to, do you?"

Jisung had turned to face him, caught Minho materializing beside him as the older spoke. He'd blinked a couple of times like a deer in headlights and then- shock- he'd smiled.

"Find me someone worth my attention and I'll spill every thought in my head right now," Jisung answered. For as much as he seemed anxious, he spoke easily, barely hesitating.

"I wouldn't wish that on anyone." Minho settled into the spot beside Jisung.

A quick appraisal, and Minho could only agree with Jisung. No one did seem worthy of his attention. Minho would never admit it- he was already concerned about the forced God complex that Jisung projected- but the other boy was different. There was an assuredness to him, and if everyone else was a question mark to Minho, then Jisung was a fully-formed thought.

Nice to look at, too. Minho noted the effort. Pretty makeup, a mahogany silk shirt that reflected the colour of his eyes in the dim lighting.

"Want a drink?" Jisung glanced over at him as he said it, and smiled when Minho nodded. "Or was substance abuse not one of the methods we're avoiding?"

Jisung was funny, so Minho laughed. He followed him when Jisung pushed himself off the wall with a groan and led him into a kitchen. Tried not to think about what he was doing. Wondered if Jisung was thinking about what this might look like, the Head Boy and the kid he's been fighting for the past however long now hovering at the counter in Changbin's kitchen together.

Minho was used to parties. Not ones like this, though. Wherever he looked in the room, all he saw was luxury brand logos, top-shelf liquor, and egos so inflated they were at risk of popping.

The same feeling as when he'd gone to Jisung's house. Inferiority, overwhelming.

"Your alternative method is- what, overthinking?" Jisung was smiling as he said it, and whilst Minho had been deep in thought, the younger had been pouring drinks. Two of them, the smell of alcohol billowing when he handed one cup to Minho and let some splash over the edge.

"Not by choice," Minho answered with a small smile, a big sip of his drink.

"Wishing you were stoned instead?"

The older glanced over the lip of his cup before shaking his head no and finishing the contents in one go. He might not need to be stoned, but he would desperately like to stop thinking quite so much- even thinking about thinking was hard. He imagined Jisung could probably silence the thoughts easily, but didn't know how to ask for this, so instead he would get drunk.